Road Food

Eating on the road is a mixed blessing.  With planning -- or even blind luck -- it can be wonderful.  Often, hungry and tired, it's pretty grim.  Our recent trip to Boston was a good example.

We started out to Boston on a Sunday, planning to arrive in time for a dinner at an old favorite -- Legal Sea Food.  Our hotel was near two of their locations and we expected to arrive in plenty of time.  Fate intervened and we left much later than intended so our dinner ended up as a 10 p.m. sandwich at a turnpike MacDonald's, further limited by the fact that their "full" menu isn't available at that hour.  Ugh!

Next day in Boston we had tickets to an American Impressionists show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (it was wonderful) and we decided to have lunch afterwards in their cafe.  They serve a limited menu of theme "plates," assortments of foods on geographic themes.  My husband had New England -- very good clam chowder plus a mini lobster roll, some chicken salad, and a demi-dessert of walnuts and cranberries.  I had Spain -- a tapas assortment of olives and almonds, a chickpea and red pepper salad, Serrano Ham, Manchego cheese and Membrillo (guava paste -- a very tasty combination), and a few figs.  Unfortunately, our lunch was interrupted before we got to the "dessert" by a clear the museum fire drill.  I had an IBM briefing starting in less than an hour so we didn't stay to see how things turned out.

That evening we had fine dinners -- mine with the IBMers and my husband on his own -- at the Four Seasons Hotel.  Mine was in the form of a fancy buffet with lots of salads, the usual things in sauces for main courses, and an assortment of restaurant desserts.

Next day, after a full day of meetings, we drove three hours to the far northwestern corner of Massachusetts to Williamstown, site of the Clark Institute, a remote but very fine private museum with an excellent collection of Impressionist and early 20th century art.  By the time we were ready to go to dinner, we wanted something nearby (although we were in the northern end of the Berkshires and there are lots of good restaurants to pick from).  On our hosts recommendation (we were staying in a real motel, owned by a Swedish couple who were fanatic gardeners) we tried a local road house a few miles down the road.  The menu was big but we weren't sure how good the food would be.  We decided to stick with something simple and ordered the Fish and Chips.  To our amazement, huge platters of meltingly soft fish encased in crisp batter, waffle chips, and very nice cole slaw appeared.  Of course, we couldn't make a dent in it! 

Next morning we toured the Clark and dined in the museum's restaurant (we like museum restaurants) on very good gazpacho and crab cakes.  Then it was time to start toward home.

But we had one more meal planned.  This trip had been planned around an attempt to eat at the Blue Hill at Stone Barn restaurant at the Rockefeller farm in Pocantico, New York, near Tarrytown.  Built in the 20's, the farm had been brought back to life about five years ago and a gourmet restaurant added, built into one of the Norman-style barns.  Let us say it was worth the wait.  We had a tasting dinner that was based on the produce grown at Blue Hill and on its neighboring farms.  I'll try to remember it all.

Hors d'ouerves:  Patty pan squash and Corn (raw and -- we think -- marinated); Tomato water with tomato water granita and olive oil

Napoleon of Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil with Tomato Sorbet and Tomato Water Cream

Bean Salad (Haricot Vert, Wax ) with Lardo and Pistachios

Striped Bass with Corn Chowder

Oyster Mushrooms with Two Hour Poached Egg

Lamb Two Ways with Quinoa

Poached Peaches with Peach Sorbet

Much better than MacDonald's -- but you would not want this every night!